21 August 2020

Departure day has arrived along with NYS Marine Tugs SARAH D. and MARGOT will tug SLATER up the river to Albany. Its been a long six weeks in the yard and we are ready to head home.

At 0800 Chris Deeley arrived to coordinate the tug hook up, the yard workers prepared to sink the dry dock, and the tugs SARAH D. and MARGOT were standing by. We uncovered the guns,

As the ship floated off the dry dock, the volunteers checked all the interior tanks, voids and bilges for leaks. A serious leak was detected by Steve Klauck in the aft motor room, B-4. The shipyard management was contacted, and the decision was made to put SLATER back in the dock to repair the leaks. The yard will work over the weekend, with an estimated depart date of Tuesday, 1300.

Let this be a warning to other ships in the historic fleet. The Slater is one of the best maintained ships in the fleet but we have huge hidden problems just as you do. No one wants to climb under machinery to inspect the void pockets. We got the smallest, skinniest person to crawl under to see why we had leaks. Extreme rot and wet debris will sink any ship in just a few years. Ships rot from the inside!!! EVERY bilge pocket needs to be clean and dry using only a putty knife. Tim and Ed have been doing this for 42 years and still missed this. Start a bilge cleaning program by doing the pockets starting at the waterline working to the keel.

On the 22nd, we sent half the crew home while we await developments. The doubler was completed today and departure is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The plate was craned into the dry dock first thing this morning.

Jacks were used to hold the plate into position for welding. High pressure water was shot at the double from every direction, while we monitored from the inside, to insure there were no leaks.

Jan spent the day needle scaling on the 01 level, Vince painted the anchor chain, Jo Ann starting putting the special collection back in order, Blair made pork for dinner, Thomas and Jack went bilge diving, and Grant admired the soaked wood that came out of the bilge.